Category archives: Course

The weather has had a significant impact on course maintenance, with notable differences between 2023 and 2024. In 2023, the total rainfall amounted to 979mm, marking the lowest recorded rainfall since the Club began keeping records in 1988.

Well, what a start to 2024 and what an end to 2023! As unpredictable weather patterns become more prevalent for us, we find ourselves grappling with the challenges posed by either that of heavy rainfall, or lack of rainfall. From our previous dry fairways to recently waterlogged parts of the golf course, the transformation from dry to wet conditions can significantly impact the game and overall experience for golfers, same can also be said for the ground staff.

We have a group of ten lady members who volunteer their time every Friday morning, they have over the last six years raised hundreds of trees, flowers, ground covers. Many of these plants were germinated from seed, potted and then planted throughout the course, all of the vegetation we have in the mini golf area are a result of their endeavours.

The new Warm Up Nets are located at the end of the Cart Sheds, in close proximity to our 1st and 10th Tees. They feature the latest synthetic hitting mats (per our Driving Range) that provide more shock absorption than older style mats, and as such are designed to prevent wrist and elbow injuries. They also allow you to use your own tees/tee heights, as opposed to the old style rubber protruding tees that were only one height, tended to damage clubs, and also led to premature wear in one spot on the mats.

As the cooler weather arrives and we see some much needed rain on the Course, it becomes even more important that we remain conscious of where we drive our Golf Carts on the Course in order to keep it in top condition.

We phoned the wildlife rescue crew from Australia Zoo who came to attend to one of our big Kangaroo’s that appeared to have a broken leg. They sedated him and took him away to their rescue hospital. We followed up to see how he was and unfortunately, the fracture was in his hip and for a roo the size of him (85kg) they struggle to make a recovery and he was euthanised.

With renovations coming up we have a couple of additional projects in place to do over these days. We have a contractor scheduled to clean out the silt build up, weeds, and grass in some of the wastelands on the 10th. This will aid with the drainage into the areas of our playing surfaces. Also, we have a plan to replace the sand on one bunker on the 15th as a trial to see how it performs in our conditions. There has been a lot of success with the use of this sand and I’m sure you will all notice the difference.

We used a relatively new technology to spray some of the water weeds that have started to appear. Some of you might have seen the large Drone flying low over our lakes. The job is completed with more speed and accuracy. We can utilise staff much more by not requiring 2 guys spray lakes from a boat which sometimes only stirs the weeds and spreads them from lake to lake.

Members are permitted to cross greens with their pushcarts – this helps with pace of play and also helps to avoid creating worn areas along the sides of greens. Please don’t sit on your attached pushcart seat while it is on the green! Park your pushcart towards the fringe of the green, near to where you will exit the green to head to the next tee, and don’t forget to lock your cart to avoid it rolling away.

MRGC moved up 12 places – from 54th to 42nd on the Golf Australia biannual list of Australia’s Top 100 Public Access Golf Courses.